teaching your students, strive to facilitate an environment that helps them develop the traits specified above, as well.
OWN YOUR LEARNING A common complaint I hear from instructors is that they don’t have enough time to prepare for certification because they work so much. Adopt a different mindset and turn all that work into preparation. Tere is a strategy in sports psychology that encourages the athlete to control the variables in their learning environment or performance situation that are directly within their means to manage. Take control of your learning environment because it will affect you either way. Always be mindful of your ultimate goal and figure out ways to incorporate that into your current environment.
TEACH LIKE A COACH If you spend the majority of your time in an instructor/guest environment and you desire success in your certification process, consider adding elements from the coach/athlete environment more of the time. Be a coach in
your lessons or treat your students like athletes. Tat can benefit you and your students. Help students create specific attainable goals, give them tools to get there, and create opportunities to test for improvements in performance. Adopt and exemplify the behavior you would like to see in your athletes. Tis strategy will help you create more narrowly focused learning segments and a way for your student to measure their improvement.
TRAIN LIKE AN ATHLETE Find a trainer that coaches athletes and teaches ski or snowboard lessons. Begin a training session confidently by clarifying and revisiting both your short and long-term goals. Avoid relinquishing responsibility for your experience to your trainer. When receiving training, contribute to the creation of a learning environment that is consistent with your professional goals. Be eager to try a challenging or
uncomfortable task, and have high expectations for yourself. Compete against your peers and strive to be better than them.
Another key training tactic is to control your response to feedback; treat it as information rather than a judgment. Be attentive to suggestions and mentally willing to accept new information. And finally, give yourself permission to struggle and embrace it; no struggle, no improvement! Progressing through the certification
process is the most readily available resource you have to develop professionally. It is a profound undertaking that can add depth to the passion for your sport and job prosperity. Developing into the snow pro you would like to become involves more than simply working as an instructor. Success in the certification process depends on the environment that you choose to create for yourself.
A new member of the PSIA Alpine Team, Stephen Helfenbein is the PSIA-Intermountain Alpine Education Manager, head coach of Utah’s Snowbird Sports Education Foundation’s $OWDELUG 1DWLRQDO )UHHULGH 7HDP FHUWLfiFDWLRQ training manager for Alta’s Alf Engen Ski School, and head coach of Alta Performance Ski Camps. Email:
phenski@me.com
MountainKhakis.com | 866.686.7778 Watch our behind the scenes VIDEO:
Download the Layar app, grab a cold one and enjoy To sign up for your pro account, please log into your member Pro Offers page at
thesnowpros.org.
THESNOWPROS.ORG | 83
©Mountain Khakis 2016 PHOTO Ben Edmonson
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